Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney, alongside
Speaker 1: my co host Matt Miller. Every business day we bring
Speaker 1: you interviews from CEOs, market pros, and Bloomberg experts, along
Speaker 1: with essential market moving news. Find the Bloomberg Markets Podcast
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I want to get
Speaker 1: right to our next guest, Danielle di Martino, Booth CEO
Speaker 1: and chief strategist at Quill Intelligence, former advisor at the
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, as well as amongst lots
Speaker 1: of other things she does, and folks, I recommend you
Speaker 1: follow Danielle on socialists, got a really strong social media
Speaker 1: game and the people she follows I now follow and
Speaker 1: vice versas, so help him you get a little bit
Speaker 1: smarker on what's going on out there. Danielle, thanks so
Speaker 1: much for taking the time here on Christmas Eve Eve.
Speaker 1: What is your outlook for this market going into two
Speaker 1: We've got Amicron, we've got a rising interest rate environment,
Speaker 1: a lot of cross currents out there. Can you kind
Speaker 1: of just give us a sense of what we should
Speaker 1: be thinking king about for next year? Well, I think
Speaker 1: markets uh rightly have moved on from Amy crom at
Speaker 1: least for the moment, it does not seem to have
Speaker 1: disrupted UH, whether you're talking about travel or services consumption.
Speaker 1: We we saw come in very hot this morning. Um,
Speaker 1: but there is something be said also for all of
Speaker 1: the goods purchases that have been pulled forward in and
Speaker 1: the fact that we will not be having any more
Speaker 1: fiscal impulse going into the first quarters, so that concerns me.
Speaker 1: We did see the weakest goods consumption that we've seen
Speaker 1: in in well over a year. So these things raise
Speaker 1: red flags when we are a consumption driven economy and
Speaker 1: you're seeing goods consumption contract and that's at a normal,
Speaker 1: non a level that's not even adjusted for inflation. Danielle Uh,
Speaker 1: I want to really stick with that topic of consumption
Speaker 1: here and and follow up on a story that's about
Speaker 1: a year and a half hold. As I'm looking at
Speaker 1: my byline, I worked with a collaborated with story with
Speaker 1: Liz McCormick, who quoted you talking about essentially the savings rate,
Speaker 1: which was likened at one point to what you saw
Speaker 1: in the Great Depression. This idea that in this kind
Speaker 1: of pandemic era, a lot of people were holding onto
Speaker 1: those savings at a rate that you didn't even see
Speaker 1: when there was that kind of depression era austerity. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you about how the savings rate is
Speaker 1: dropping and what the impact of that on consumption is
Speaker 1: and then by extension the broader economy that's you know,
Speaker 1: that's a fantastic question. We're back down to two thousand
Speaker 1: seventeen levels on on the savings rate, as we saw
Speaker 1: in this morning's data, and that is problematic, especially when
Speaker 1: you layer on top of that the fact that we
Speaker 1: know due to New York Federal Reserve data, that the
Speaker 1: bulk of the savings that do survive, that have survived,
Speaker 1: are in the hands of those between sixty five and
Speaker 1: and and older, as as well as those who are
Speaker 1: the wealthiest who have the least propensity to use their savings.
Speaker 1: So again, this this fiscal cliff idea is critical as
Speaker 1: we head into the New York. January fift is going
Speaker 1: to mark the first month that Americans don't receive five
Speaker 1: fifty dollars on average in child tax credit in cash,
Speaker 1: and some of them are going to have to pay
Speaker 1: some of that back when the I R s opens
Speaker 1: up the it's it's window to submit tax returns on
Speaker 1: January thirty one. So a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: interesting um events occurring in that first month of this year.
Speaker 1: So given that backdrop, Danielle, we've got some pretty clear
Speaker 1: guidance from this Federal Reserve as to how they're thinking
Speaker 1: about their tapering and and the rate structure. Do you
Speaker 1: think the Federal Reserve is getting it right or is
Speaker 1: that narrative that maybe they're still behind the market is
Speaker 1: that's still there. But you can't start out from behind
Speaker 1: and not still be behind. So I mean, unless they
Speaker 1: unless they were to come out at the end of June,
Speaker 1: excuse me, the end of January, their next meeting, which
Speaker 1: is the last week of January, and say you know what,
Speaker 1: the tapers over, We're finished with it um. But they
Speaker 1: could certainly and we'll listen to sad talk. There was
Speaker 1: a fantastic are go on the terminal about Christopher Waller,
Speaker 1: and I recommend everybody read that article because he is
Speaker 1: a different sounding Federals are governor, and of course governors
Speaker 1: have permanent votes. We haven't seen a governor dissent since
Speaker 1: two thousands five, and he seems dead set on that
Speaker 1: March seventeenth launch date for the first rate hike, So
Speaker 1: you know, will they get there, will the will the
Speaker 1: yield curve win? We'll find out. I mean there are
Speaker 1: some people who are saying if yield curve is compressing
Speaker 1: and behaving almost like mid de late cycle, so we
Speaker 1: will see if the yield curve races to the finish line.
Speaker 1: And because the Fed cannot increase interest rates if the
Speaker 1: yield curve is inverted, it's just there's nothing in the
Speaker 1: rule book that would allow for that. So three rate
Speaker 1: hikes in two that is the message we have gotten
Speaker 1: from the Fed. Something he'd mind is since then, we've
Speaker 1: had several emerging market countries continue to hike and hike
Speaker 1: and hike. The Czech Republic I believe is the most
Speaker 1: recent um And we don't need another reminder on what's
Speaker 1: going on with Turkey. Of course, going in the opposite direction, Danielle,
Speaker 1: I really want to ask you what the bond market
Speaker 1: is really thinking here, because it kind of seems like
Speaker 1: when you're looking at pricing, they're pricing in not just
Speaker 1: steeper hikes, but kind of this kind of knee jerk,
Speaker 1: stop start reaction. This idea that the FED might actually
Speaker 1: need to do something and then wait and see and
Speaker 1: then do it again. What is your thought process on
Speaker 1: the bond markets? Take So, I mean the check Republic
Speaker 1: over night raised interest rates by a hundred basis points.
Speaker 1: We were expecting seventy five. And we're seeing some very
Speaker 1: aggressive behavior again to your point outside of Turkey where
Speaker 1: everything's Craig craig, but we're seeing a very aggressive emerging market.
Speaker 1: They have to defend their currencies right now. Um, So
Speaker 1: the question is one of how does the FED react?
Speaker 1: And should the FED be reacting or should the Fed
Speaker 1: be disciplined in its approach maintain that that pace, maintain
Speaker 1: the stability that markets are expecting. Again, I go back
Speaker 1: to the yield curve and the fact that other areas
Speaker 1: of the economy are pulling that long end down. We
Speaker 1: can't seem to get past that that one point five
Speaker 1: zero ceiling on the tenure or it feel like an
Speaker 1: inner and ceiling. So I go back to how aggressive
Speaker 1: the FED can be given what the bond market is
Speaker 1: dictating right now. Hey, Danielle, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: taking the time today. We always appreciate getting your perspective.
Speaker 1: Viewer views, particularly here at this time of years, we
Speaker 1: think about next year. Danielle di Martino Booth. She's a
Speaker 1: CEO and chief strategist at Quill Intelligence, also a former
Speaker 1: advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. One of
Speaker 1: the I guess economic oddities, at least for me, from
Speaker 1: this pandemic has been what some are calling the Great resignation,
Speaker 1: people just leaving the workforce. I don't really have a
Speaker 1: great answer why, but maybe our next guest will and
Speaker 1: give us a sense of how things are working out
Speaker 1: in the labor market. Roll Vr, CEO of pay Corps.
Speaker 1: Pay Corp is a public company went public this year,
Speaker 1: trades on the nastac P y c R. It's kind
Speaker 1: of market cap of five point two billion dollars. RAU, Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us here. UM. Your
Speaker 1: company creates human capital management software to help recruit an
Speaker 1: onboard employees as well as other people management tools. Do
Speaker 1: you have a sense, given your history with your customers,
Speaker 1: your clients, where these people went the Great Resignation? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So I think that there's there's two dynamics, UM that
Speaker 1: are happening. First and foremost, you know, since the pandemic,
Speaker 1: UM you know, we're still not back to uh, the
Speaker 1: overall labor market hasn't go back to where it was
Speaker 1: pre COVID uh. And so there's two things that are
Speaker 1: going on. Um, there's less supply in the market, which
Speaker 1: makes you know, each individual job UM in more demand.
Speaker 1: And so people are really re evaluating. People are talking
Speaker 1: about the Great resignation, but from our perspective, it's a
Speaker 1: reevaluation where people are thinking about their current job and hey,
Speaker 1: do I really want that job and is it offering me,
Speaker 1: you know, the right leadership, the right benefits, the right
Speaker 1: pay package. And so we're seeing shortages and some of
Speaker 1: the industries that we all you know, work with every day,
Speaker 1: whether it be retail or food and beverage or hospitality. UM,
Speaker 1: we're seeing significant worker shortages and all of those industries
Speaker 1: because you know, people are reevaluating their future and they're
Speaker 1: deciding to do other things. Yeah, well this is going
Speaker 1: to be a crucial piece of the equation going into two.
Speaker 1: We're looking at a queer rate that's just shy three
Speaker 1: according to latest Jolts data, the highest in history that
Speaker 1: the data goes back to. I really want to talk
Speaker 1: about here why we're actually not necessarily seeing this hit
Speaker 1: some of those retailers to hospitality figures because they are
Speaker 1: still trying to hire, they are still seeing their shortages.
Speaker 1: But somehow those businesses are still operating. Can you connect
Speaker 1: those dots for us? Yeah, I think you know clearly, Um,
Speaker 1: the retailers and hostilities are still operating. I think they're
Speaker 1: operating less effectively than before. I think we're all waiting
Speaker 1: a little longer in lines, you know at retailers, or um,
Speaker 1: waiting a little longer to have dinner, um, those type
Speaker 1: of things. But UM, what's happened is it's forced retailers
Speaker 1: and restaurants UM to try new things to attract employees,
Speaker 1: whether that's flexible work schedules, whether that's you know, on
Speaker 1: demand pay, the ability to get UM their pay you know,
Speaker 1: instead of on a weekly basis or by loot basis.
Speaker 1: Can I get my pay on demand to help pay
Speaker 1: with my bills and and offering you know, better flexibility
Speaker 1: and better benefits across the board. So I think you're
Speaker 1: seeing the cost to employees increasing for retail and hospitality. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so that's become you know, the next issue for
Speaker 1: you know, those industries is the overall costs, which were
Speaker 1: then seeing pushed back onto the consumer. Paul, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you've ordered food like take out to your
Speaker 1: house lately, but I certainly have because I'm a horrible cook.
Speaker 1: But one of the main issues for me has been
Speaker 1: having these very delayed deliveries. And this is such a
Speaker 1: first world problem, right, I'm gonna complain about it on
Speaker 1: the air anyway, But a lot of it tends to
Speaker 1: be because of simply a shortage of food delivery people
Speaker 1: and drivers, for example. So let me ask you here
Speaker 1: about just the effect here on the gig economy, on
Speaker 1: the folks that don't necessarily have a salary job. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: I mean I think you're seeing again, um, you see
Speaker 1: shortages on on food. I think we've also all seen
Speaker 1: a change in behavior with Uber and Lift than you know,
Speaker 1: pre pandemic in the ability to get an on time ride. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so I think you know, people are definitely moving
Speaker 1: into gig jobs, and we're still seeing that acceleration. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's happening at the rate that's required to
Speaker 1: service the demand shift for either delivery or Uber or
Speaker 1: lift or the type of services that gig supports. And
Speaker 1: so We're seeing the same type of shortages there overall. Um,
Speaker 1: whether it be you know, the traditional employment economy or
Speaker 1: the gig economy, we're facing the same labor issues across
Speaker 1: the board. Roll uh cretty and I we are in
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg headquarters office today, UM, but we're lonely. Are
Speaker 1: people gonna come back to the office? So uh, like
Speaker 1: you know, our perspective is that, UM, we're gonna continue
Speaker 1: to see a mixed environment. UM, you know for the
Speaker 1: foreseeable future. UM, we're probably you know a little overcorrected
Speaker 1: right now. We're the majority of people are working from home.
Speaker 1: I think you know, over the next you know, six
Speaker 1: or twelve months, we'll see more of a mix, some
Speaker 1: return to work, maybe not five days a week. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, at pay Corps as an example, you know,
Speaker 1: we have a virtual first philosophy. UM, and we enable
Speaker 1: you know, our employees to work from home or flex
Speaker 1: into an office in a hotel ing type concept. And
Speaker 1: I think we're gonna see more of that, you know,
Speaker 1: for the foreseeable future. UM. I think you know, when
Speaker 1: we you know, survey our client base, survey our own employees,
Speaker 1: people are saying we want flexibility. UM, we also want
Speaker 1: the connectivity of being in the office and being with
Speaker 1: our coworkers and doing things for the community and those
Speaker 1: types of things. Yeah, it's interesting to see how this
Speaker 1: is going to develop. A vr CEO of pay Corps.
Speaker 1: It's a NASDAC listed stock p y c R. I
Speaker 1: don't know about your pretty but I still go to
Speaker 1: the grocery store. Do you go to grocer store, you
Speaker 1: get your groceries delivered? I do go to the grocery store,
Speaker 1: and let me tell you, it's the worst part of
Speaker 1: my day. See, that's why a lot of people, more
Speaker 1: and more people a getting their groceries delivered in Our
Speaker 1: next guest certainly is in the middle of that. Sha Wang,
Speaker 1: CEO and co founder of Boxed uh symbol b o
Speaker 1: x D on the New York Stock Exchange, joins us
Speaker 1: here say thanks so much for taking the time here.
Speaker 1: First of all, just give us a thirty view of
Speaker 1: your company, uh. And also I think you guys recent
Speaker 1: came public via a spack. Give us the details there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been a it's been a pretty wild year, Paul,
Speaker 1: so Um, we're Boxed. As you mentioned, b o x
Speaker 1: e D is the company name, but bio x d
Speaker 1: s are symbol in the New York sockic Change. So
Speaker 1: we started eight and a half years ago shipping bulk
Speaker 1: consumables to consumers and businesses. So we still do that today,
Speaker 1: but we also sell the technology, including the hardware and
Speaker 1: all the software that powers that e commerce business via
Speaker 1: a software and services business as well. So all that
Speaker 1: is what we do today here are boxed. Well, we
Speaker 1: gotta start talking about your the issues that are of
Speaker 1: course kind of hurting a lot of companies across the board.
Speaker 1: I want to know the ones that are affecting yours,
Speaker 1: primarily when we're talking about inventory, because I'm just look
Speaker 1: at your website here. Looks like you guys deliver things
Speaker 1: in bulk, which must mean there are inventory and storage
Speaker 1: costs involved. Talk to us about that. Yeah, absolutely, So
Speaker 1: we right now are mostly first party merchandiser, so meaning
Speaker 1: we take him into our of the item and we
Speaker 1: sell that item to consumers all around the country. Um
Speaker 1: to Paul's question before, the challenges of and the opportunities
Speaker 1: are the real reason why we went vias back and
Speaker 1: so Um, when you look at our business, traditionally of
Speaker 1: our business pre COVID was B two B and so creaty.
Speaker 1: You can imagine that, you know, as folks stopped going
Speaker 1: into the office, as you know, schools shut down. That
Speaker 1: was very hurtful for our B two B business last
Speaker 1: year to say the least. Um But as a as
Speaker 1: the comy economy opened up a bit, as we're beginning
Speaker 1: to live with COVID, we're seeing a rebound there and
Speaker 1: showing the world what that looks like two three or
Speaker 1: four or five years into the future was something we
Speaker 1: could do by going public vias back. So give us
Speaker 1: a sense here. I mean, we're hearing from a lot
Speaker 1: of different businesses throughout the economy the challenges of the
Speaker 1: supply chain bottlenecks out there. How is that impacting your business? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's I mean, that is the I mean, it is
Speaker 1: the biggest issue afflicting almost the entire planet uh today
Speaker 1: when it comes to business. Um So, the good thing
Speaker 1: for Boxed is that because we sell consumables, and because
Speaker 1: of overt decisions we made years ago with our private brand,
Speaker 1: almost everything you would buy Unboxed when it comes to
Speaker 1: the consumable products are actually made in the US. Um So,
Speaker 1: when you see those boats lined up off the kind
Speaker 1: of ports all around the world. That doesn't affect us
Speaker 1: as much. But I have to say the shortage of
Speaker 1: of labor supply um that certainly affects us be a
Speaker 1: last mile and so as our last mile partners start
Speaker 1: to um you know, have bilats or begin to raise
Speaker 1: rates because of that shortage and labor um you know,
Speaker 1: that will of course affect us as well as affect
Speaker 1: everyone across the entire industry. Let's talk about who your
Speaker 1: consumer is here, I and I'm Paul, I guess lives
Speaker 1: in the suburbs, like I live in the city here
Speaker 1: in a very small studio, I might add, with a
Speaker 1: puppy who is adorable. But um, what I want to
Speaker 1: really want to ask you here is what is the
Speaker 1: difference in your consumer base? Because if you're talking about
Speaker 1: essentially bulk deliveries, I don't know if I have room
Speaker 1: in my studio to put that. So I'm curious because
Speaker 1: I'm looking at some notes here, and your headquarters essentially
Speaker 1: in New York City, your fulfilment centers are across the
Speaker 1: country in Dallas, by the way, which I might add,
Speaker 1: I am from. So talk to us about the kind
Speaker 1: of separation those diversions between say those city dwellers versus
Speaker 1: those the country folks that are not in New York City.
Speaker 1: That's such a great question. And the reason why I
Speaker 1: was laughing is because you know, I would imagine if
Speaker 1: we went back in time. Uh. And you know, in
Speaker 1: the big toilet paper crunch of twenty twenty, and I
Speaker 1: showed up with boilet papers the apartment. Yeah, I was creating.
Speaker 1: I'm sure even though you're in the studio, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you'd be like, all right, we're gonna touch us this
Speaker 1: into my apartment somehow. Um. But um, you know, joking
Speaker 1: aside kind of what we see and what shocked a
Speaker 1: lot of folks when we did our road show was
Speaker 1: that UM, at our last read of our demographic, almost
Speaker 1: seventy of that audience UM surveyed is either in kind
Speaker 1: of deep suburbs or in rural America. Uh. And so
Speaker 1: these are folks that don't live within a thirty sixty
Speaker 1: ninety minute drive of a local warehouse club, so previous
Speaker 1: to us, they were largely shut out of of stocking
Speaker 1: up and saving by doing so. Interesting, So, so, who
Speaker 1: do you really compete against uh day to day? And
Speaker 1: how's that maybe changed during the pandemic Yeah, So what
Speaker 1: you really kind of see from some of the data
Speaker 1: that we've we've been shown is that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: we get pitted against Costco, b J's, and Sam's Club
Speaker 1: a lot. But you know, when you when you hear
Speaker 1: kind of what I just said before about like almost
Speaker 1: sev don't live close to one of those clubs, you
Speaker 1: actually start to see kind of some of the data
Speaker 1: we've had access to, you start to see some overlap
Speaker 1: in the ven diagram with um, traditional supermarkets, dollar stores,
Speaker 1: um uh, and traditional chains like that that you would
Speaker 1: otherwise have only have access to if you live in
Speaker 1: a small town. So one of the big you just
Speaker 1: mentioned Costco. One of the big divergences between or differences
Speaker 1: I should say between say Costco or your average Walmart
Speaker 1: for for example, is product selection. Costco doesn't have as
Speaker 1: big of a product selection as say your Walmart does,
Speaker 1: which has multiple multiple options. Where on that scale do
Speaker 1: you fall in terms of the things that you offer
Speaker 1: to consumers. So that is something that we've really really
Speaker 1: tried to hone over time. So we started off, you know,
Speaker 1: almost eight and a half years ago with just two
Speaker 1: high their products for sale. We're up to closer to
Speaker 1: three thousand these days, Um, your typical you know, warehouse
Speaker 1: club will have you know, between three to five thousand items.
Speaker 1: Your typical supermarket will have closer to hundred thousand, and
Speaker 1: you know, your typical superstar will have way above that. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know where we want to take it, and
Speaker 1: kind of what we set out in our original investor
Speaker 1: presentation in analyst Day was that we're going to take
Speaker 1: the money that we raised close to two hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars and actually grow a sortment because I think there's
Speaker 1: definitely some pockets um of inventory where our customers are saying, hey,
Speaker 1: you know I already buy hundred dollars worth of stuff
Speaker 1: for you from you on an average shop if you
Speaker 1: only had X, Y and Z, I would have thrown
Speaker 1: it in the basket, but you didn't carry it. So
Speaker 1: that's a real opportunity for us in the coming years.
Speaker 1: So talk to us about this use of capital again, UM,
Speaker 1: broadening your your selection of goods. What other drivers are
Speaker 1: you looking for for your business? Yeah, so you know
Speaker 1: what we It's it's funny because you know, yesterday we
Speaker 1: rang the bell at the Stock Exchange, immediately came back
Speaker 1: to the office and got right back to work with
Speaker 1: the management off site or on site off site UM,
Speaker 1: and what we talked about was basically making that original
Speaker 1: investor presentation come true. We want to be a management
Speaker 1: team that says he was what we presented to you
Speaker 1: and this is exactly what we delivered. And so to
Speaker 1: the question Paul, it was three main levers in BBC
Speaker 1: B two C. One was growing up brand because you know,
Speaker 1: it's decently well known in New York City, but you
Speaker 1: know when you go across the country, you know, unaided
Speaker 1: awareness is still rather low for Boxed. So marketing investment
Speaker 1: too is increase of assortment, so whether it's healthy in
Speaker 1: organics or baby or other products that were not very strong,
Speaker 1: and that's definitely another lever. And then the third is
Speaker 1: UM some of the subscription and loyalty programs that we
Speaker 1: have to increase retention. So those are three levers that
Speaker 1: we're going to pull this year. Cha, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. Really appreciate learning about the story there. Well,
Speaker 1: despite this me Kron variant, what I'm going to be
Speaker 1: busy doing this weekend is booking some ski trips for
Speaker 1: this winter and spring. A couple of my faves I'm
Speaker 1: looking at our Squaw Valley in Lake Taho. It's now
Speaker 1: been renamed Palisades Tahoe. We'll leave that for another time
Speaker 1: and discussion. Also looking at another favorite steamboat springs out
Speaker 1: in Colorado. And guess what, We're going to talk to
Speaker 1: the guy who actually runs all that stuff, Rusty Gregory,
Speaker 1: chief executive officer for i'll Terra Mountain Company. Rusty, I'm
Speaker 1: booking my trips. I'm looking. I'm not letting omikron kind
Speaker 1: of slow me down. What's your view of this ski season? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, we're very optimistic, much better shape than we
Speaker 1: were last year when there was a lot of unknowns
Speaker 1: about the pandemic. This year less so and uh and weather.
Speaker 1: It is hitting the west Wood a vengeance. I'm actually
Speaker 1: sitting at Mammoth Mountain. It's no three ft overnight and
Speaker 1: that dorm is on its way to Utah and to Colorado.
Speaker 1: So very excited. Russy, I want to ask you about
Speaker 1: just kind of the next five years. Are you a
Speaker 1: sci I'm not a sky not necessarily have a I'm
Speaker 1: gonna work on that, Rusty, see if I can get
Speaker 1: We'll have to do a little, a little field trip
Speaker 1: about to Colorado. Well, I want to ask you about
Speaker 1: the next five years here. Let's say there are more variants.
Speaker 1: Let's say there is more of these kind of COVID
Speaker 1: issues where it does require perhaps staying at home, working
Speaker 1: from home for a few weeks at a time. As
Speaker 1: you start to see cases kind of ebb and flow,
Speaker 1: what is the take from I'm gonna say the skiing industry.
Speaker 1: I want to leave it to you, but skiing industry
Speaker 1: on how to deal with something like that, Well, COVID
Speaker 1: has created a tremendous amount of disruption for everybody. It's
Speaker 1: very difficult to look out two weeks much more than
Speaker 1: five years. But the idea of people working at home
Speaker 1: and being a bit more in charge of exactly how
Speaker 1: they work, when they work, where they work, I think
Speaker 1: fits in nicely to skiing in general. Many people have
Speaker 1: moved to ski resorts and those uh, those are those
Speaker 1: people are on zoom calls at the resorts themselves and
Speaker 1: at their homes, and it also gives them more flexibility
Speaker 1: during the midweek. On one hand, when you're working at home,
Speaker 1: you're often called on to work at all sorts of
Speaker 1: odd hours. On the other hand, you have you have
Speaker 1: time off that you didn't have before when everybody was
Speaker 1: going to the same parking garage and the same office cubicles.
Speaker 1: So our business during the midweek during the pandemic has
Speaker 1: been up considerably. And uh, you know, people figure out
Speaker 1: a way to do the things that they need to
Speaker 1: do and the things they love to do. And skiing
Speaker 1: is one of those things. Outdoor sport, something you can
Speaker 1: do with others safely, and it uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: think it can deal with a disruption like most of
Speaker 1: the rest of our economy over time. Rusty, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: looking at the weather map now and you know the
Speaker 1: West Coast is just getting dumped with snow and rain,
Speaker 1: depending upon where where you are. So hopefully that will
Speaker 1: help out our good friends in California with a drought.
Speaker 1: But talk to us about climate change and how that's
Speaker 1: impacting your business. A lot of folks are concerned about
Speaker 1: they just won't be as much snow or as good snow.
Speaker 1: How do you guys think about that? And you know,
Speaker 1: including snowmaking. I guess well, we are a bit the
Speaker 1: canary in the coal mine. Uh, you know, we we
Speaker 1: are dependent on whether and you know, we really sell
Speaker 1: the joy of mother nature, and that's a that's very
Speaker 1: important for us. So it's a concern for us and
Speaker 1: something that's very important for us to play a leading
Speaker 1: role in terms of environmental responsibility. From a business standpoint.
Speaker 1: Part of the answer to that is to have a
Speaker 1: large portfolio of assets that allows us to distribute our
Speaker 1: weather risk over various regions globally and UH and also
Speaker 1: to offer our guests a product that allows them to
Speaker 1: hedge their risk to the extent that, whether is not
Speaker 1: as good as snow is not as plentiful in the
Speaker 1: area they typically go in on the icon past, they
Speaker 1: can go to any one of our our forty eight
Speaker 1: resorts and UH and enjoy themselves. So, you know, it's
Speaker 1: something that none of us exactly know what's going to happen,
Speaker 1: but whether it's more volatile than it was, and in
Speaker 1: this case, it's brought a tremendous amount of snow to
Speaker 1: the West and people will be joining the enjoying that
Speaker 1: here in the in the days and weeks to come. Russie,
Speaker 1: how are your bookings looking forward for this season and
Speaker 1: kind of how has the the restricted international travel affected
Speaker 1: your business? You know, it's uh yet to be determined
Speaker 1: exactly what international travel is going to do this year.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that we'll be down in our resorts that
Speaker 1: are more dependent on destination travel overseas from overseas, but
Speaker 1: here domestically, our bookings of are incredibly strong, the most
Speaker 1: I've been in a business. I hate to tell your
Speaker 1: listeners how old I am, but well over forty years
Speaker 1: and I've never seen this much demand. Ever. People want
Speaker 1: to break out of their houses and they're downstairs basements,
Speaker 1: away from their zoom calls and get outside, and they're
Speaker 1: certainly booking up for this winter and very very strong fashion.
Speaker 1: How about inflation? Here are you guys? Actually, I really
Speaker 1: want to talk about labor because you know, when I
Speaker 1: get on the ski left often it's an international person
Speaker 1: helping me get on the ski lift, and lots of
Speaker 1: international labor outside the US talked to us about your
Speaker 1: labor situation. You know, like all the rest of the
Speaker 1: businesses in the in the US, labor has been very
Speaker 1: difficult to find um and uh, you know correctly, so
Speaker 1: wages are higher, much higher than they have been in
Speaker 1: the past. We've been fortunate. We've filled up to somewhere
Speaker 1: between eight and of our our staffing rosters. At each
Speaker 1: one of our resorts, and so we're starting off the
Speaker 1: season in very good shape. And uh, for our big
Speaker 1: concern is to keep them healthy and to keep them,
Speaker 1: you know, at work in a way that's comfortable for
Speaker 1: them socially distance enough so that they can come back
Speaker 1: each day wearing masks where appropriate indoors. And so right
Speaker 1: now we're looking good on the labor side, and we'll
Speaker 1: see where where things go this winter. But it's a
Speaker 1: you know, the ski industry is a person to person business,
Speaker 1: and we rely on our people in the front lines
Speaker 1: and they do a great job. Yep, they absolutely do
Speaker 1: all right, Rusty, thanks so much for joining us, Rusty Gregory,
Speaker 1: chief executive officer for I'll Tear Up Mountain Company. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can subscribe
Speaker 1: and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast
Speaker 1: platform you prefer. I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at
Speaker 1: Matt Miller seventy three. On ball Sweeney, I'm on Twitter
Speaker 1: at pt Sweeney. Before the podcast, you can always catch
Speaker 1: us worldwide at Bloomberg Radio.